http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THE DEMOCRATS have returned to a far different Los Angeles than the one
where they nominated John F. Kennedy in 1960. They would barely recognize
it, but for the fact that the party and city are on a parallel course of
decline.

Democrats, especially under Clinton and Gore, are the party of smoke and
mirrors, where righteous rhetoric obscures entrenched corruption and
pointless policies. L.A. is a city built on illusion, where murderous
reality lurks just below the surface.

America's fantasy capital, is right next door.

Hollywood is reflexively liberal. The entertainment community is clinically
committed to big government, paranoid about the police and military, and
convinced that every NRA member is a "moody loner with a handgun," polluting
corporations are killing us all, and that rich Nazi Republicans are planning
to abolish the minimum wage and force schoolchildren to pray and teens to
wear chastity belts, as soon as they regain the presidency.

Without the Spielbergs and Streisands, Democratic candidates would be
reduced to holding bake sales. In podium speeches, Democrats will decry the
fate of the downtrodden (kids without health insurance, seniors without
prescription drug coverage) and go home with bags of cash from folks who
think roughing it means dining in a four-star restaurant on cook's night
off.

On Sunday, Barbra Streisand hosted a brunch for the first president who
truly reflects Hollywood's ethos. Each of the 50 couples in attendance paid
from $100,000 to $1 million to help build the Clinton Library, Monica
exhibit one floor down.

Gore's main fund-raiser comes Thursday evening at the 6,000-seat Shrine
Auditorium, with appearances by Whoopi Goldberg and Gladys Knight.
While Hollywood is in solidarity with the vice president -- his tree-hugger
rhetoric appeals to people who build 50-car garages at their Bel Air estates
to accommodate Sierra Club soirees -- they swoon at Clinton's feet.

During the impeachment, they railed at Ken Starr and House Republicans for
what they called sexual McCarthyism.

"I'm disgusted with the sordid way Bill Clinton is being treated," stormed
Alec Baldwin. "President Clinton is a decent human being and we should treat
him as such." Who can doubt the judgment of an actor who once observed that
President George Bush was "a CIA mass murderer ... who is owned by oil
companies."

Pity Streisand is only raising money and not delivering the keynote
address. Her 1995 Harvard debut as a political orator was so promising.

Washington could learn something from Hollywood, Babs declared. (Clinton
did.) And she will not rest until "women are treated equally with men, until
gays and minorities are not discriminated against, and until children have
their full civil rights." From sea to shining sea?

Speaking of minorities, not far from swank Beverly Hills are the slums of
South Central and East L.A. Democrats will celebrate their diversity in a
city of smoldering racial/ethnic tensions.

L.A. is a magnet for illegal immigrants. The majority of women who give
birth at county hospitals, at public expense, are illegals. Stroll a few
blocks from S. Figueroa St. and you'd think you were in Tijuana.

Weeks before Bill Clinton accepted his party's nomination in 1992, South
Central exploded following the first Rodney King verdict. The riots left 50
dead, more than 2,500 wounded and $2 billion in damage. Although Clinton
issued a politically timed reprimand to riot cheerleader Sister Souljah, for
decades Democrats have stoked the fires of resentment by blaming the plight
of the underclass on institutional racism.

Like its convention city, there is an air of unreality about the Democratic
Party. Appearances are everything. Pick a vice-presidential candidate who
gives great lip-service to piety, and voters will forget that this is the
party of perjury and campaign contributions from the People's Liberation
Army.

Democrats really should return to the City of Fallen Angels for their 2004
convention (where they nominate Streisand and Baldwin) and combine it with
the Academy Awards ceremony. And the award fo the
best-politician-caught-with-his-pants-down-feigning-repentance
is ...

JWR contributing columnist Don Feder's latest books are Who is afraid of the Religious Right? ($15.95) and A Jewish conservative looks at pagan America ($9.95). To receive an autographed copy, send a check or money order to: Don Feder, The Boston Herald, 1 Herald Sq., Boston, Mass. 02106. Doing so will help fund JWR, if so noted. He is also available as a guest speaker. To comment on this column please click here.